He's running out of hands to get caught in the cookie-jar...

Payments to Rockaway Peninsula were criticized by the good-government group Change-NY in the 1990s as an example of a waste of taxpayer dollars, but the group escaped scrutiny by routinely refusing to file nonprofit reports.

The organization's tax filings from 1996 to 2001 were not filed until February 2003, a violation of charity laws. The documents were slipshod and handwritten, and did not fully detail how the taxpayer money it received was spent.

The returns for 1996, 1997 and 1998 make vague reference to the "acquisition" of a community-center site for the Dinkins program. But the headquarters for the program, which did its work in local schools, was the second floor of a dilapidated house on Beach Channel Drive in Far Rockaway.

Meeks refused to answer any questions about the charity Friday. Dinkins, whose name was used for the program but who does not appear to have been involved, did not return calls.

Meeks was subpoenaed in April as part of a federal probe into the New Direction Local Development Corp., a Queens charity he founded with state Sen. Malcolm Smith. Smith is also under investigation.

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